Welcome to Berrien County ISD Videoconferencing

Posted on March 24, 2005 by Janine Lim

This blog will be about one distance learning coordinator’s experiences, curriculum thoughts, and technology rants related to k12 videoconferencing. As of this writing, I coordinate videoconferencing for 24 Polycom units in 18 school districts in southwest Michigan. We’ve been doing videoconferencing since 1999. You can read about our program online here: Southwestnet Distance Learning.

I have a teaching background and bring that curriculum knowledge to videoconferencing. This background helps me look at VC from the teacher’s perspective. From that perspective, I’ve created several tools that are useful for assisting teachers with finding quality VC content. One is the annual “Two Page Selected List”… I do two versions – one for my local teachers posted on my distance learning website and including information on how my teachers register with me for VCs – and one for everyone else to use posted on the TWICE website (look in the top right column). We’ll look at other tools later…

In addition, I have a knack and love for learning new technologies so I am also the “techie” for our distance learning program. I run our MCU bridge; assist our local distance learning coordinators with using their Polycoms, and interact with our network guys on the issues related to IP videoconferencing. All this I’ve learned as it has come my way – from colleagues, from our wonderful SBC helpdesk, from VTCTalk.com and any other source I can find from which to learn! So in my blog, I’ll also be commenting on the technical side of videoconferencing

I also am serving as TWICE president this year (2004-2005). TWICE stands for Two Way Interactive Connections in Education. TWICE is Michigan’s videoconferencing organization. We started in 2001 when several of us, mostly at the ISD level (Michigan educational service agency term) decided we ought to be collaborating and sharing great resources.

So, come back again and see what I’m learning, creating, or thinking about related to videoconferencing in k12 education!

Janine

About Janine Lim

Janine Lim, PhD, currently serves as associate dean for online higher education in the School of Distance Education at Andrews University, in Berrien Springs, MI. She and her team support over 200 online courses, provide training for faculty teaching online, and work with the campus infrastructure support of online learning. Her department also provides educational technology and Moodle support for faculty and students. In addition, Janine is responsible for the faculty and courses of the Consortium of Adventist Colleges and Universities. Janine has taught over 15 unique graduate educational technology classes online numerous times over the past 15 years, with some classes attracting participants from all over the world. Her undergraduate teaching includes social media courses for communication and digital media majors. Janine has served on the board of the United States Distance Learning Association since April 2015. Prior to her work at Andrews University, Janine coordinated distance education for 22 K12 school districts in southwest Michigan for 14 years. In that position, as one of the co-founders of TWICE, Michigan’s K12 Videoconferencing Organization, Janine has spearheaded popular international K12 videoconference projects such as Read Around the Planet and MysteryQuest. While still serving on the board of TWICE, she was instrumental in designing and implementing the CAPspace website for collaborative videoconference projects. Janine also served on a team of Michigan educational technology trainers providing a workshop called ATA Technology Academy. Her current online learning research interests include successful teacher behaviors, quality online discussions, and student activity patterns in self-paced courses.
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